Recap: I flew from Hawaii to California on a military flight, then flew up to Seattle for 10 days, found out Stephen was coming back from Japan sooner than we had thought and on a Tuesday evening flew back to California.
Tuesday
My parents picked me up from the airport that night.
I had called Travis Air Force Base and listened to their flight info recording that lets you know the flights for the next 24 hours.
There was a flight first thing Wednesday morning with 70 seats, I was good to go!
Or so I thought.
Wednesday:
I wake up super early to start getting ready to go to Travis and I call to check the flight info and the flight was moved to that afternoon.
Back to bed.
My parents were both busy at work so my wonderful grandpa gave me a ride to Travis.
I figured he would just drop me off but him being a good grandpa insisted on coming in with me and waiting till I got on the plane.
It was a good thing too.
We walked into the terminal and I went to check in and they said the flight was pushed back till the next day.
Bummer.
So my grandpa took me back home and my parents had a nice surprise when they got home from work.
Thursday:
Woke up early again to go to Travis, called and the flight was pushed back to the afternoon again.
My grandpa and grandma took me to Travis that afternoon and they came in to wait with me.
I went to check in and was told the 70 seat flight was cancelled but that there was a flight with 20 seats and then another flight with 10 seats.
So I thought "I should be able to make it on one of those."
Now let me explain a little about how military flights, A.K.A. Space-A, works.
The Air Force has planes with cargo going from base to base and sometimes these planes have empty seats on them.
These empty seats are offered to military personal and their families for free.
How you get these seats are based on category.
There are 6 categories.
Now I am guessing that most of my readers don't care to hear what all the categories are and all the details, but if you are interested go here: www.spacea.net
But just to give you an idea,
Category 1: Active duty personnel on emergency leave
Category 6: Retirees
I was category 5.
Crazy I know!
Isn't there a special category 1a for cute redheads who really want to get home before their husbands?
No?
I want to speak to the General.
Anyways...
So when a flight comes in they will do a "roll call".
They start by calling the names of the people signed up in category 1, then category 2 and so on until all the seats are filled.
When the next flight comes in they start over again, at category 1.
So there I was at the Travis terminal with my grandparents and the first flight came in with 20 seats and the roll call began.
When they do the roll call there is a screen that has the list of all the people signed up, listed in order by category.
So whenever that first flashes up, everyone gathers around and starts doing the math to see if the people in the categories before them will take all the seats.
It was at this time I realized I was in big trouble.
There were a lot of people ahead of me.
It was clear I was not going to get on a plane that day and that I would try for the 70 seat plane that was scheduled for the next day.
So my grandparents took me home again.
(Keep in mind that with all these back and forths I was packing and unpacking)
Friday:
I get up early and my dad takes me and drops me off at Travis (he had a meeting and couldn't wait with me).
The terminal was full of people again.
Everyone was waiting for that promised 70 seat plane.
I felt really bad for the women I saw by themselves with children.
Some of the people didn't have family in the area and were spending all day and night in the terminal.
So while waiting, the 70 seat flight got pushed back to the next day again.
That's when I heard people talking and say that the plane was broken down at another base and they kept scheduling it thinking it would be fixed.
Crap.
While waiting for the small flights, I started to find myself getting irritated every time a new person showed up at the terminal and then their 8 kids in after them.
Im serious, I never saw so many big families!
There were at least 3 families with no less than 5 kids!
I waited through the roll calls for the smaller flights but it was clear I wasn't going to make any of them.
Apparently a lot of people want to go to Hawaii, who knew?
So my grandparents came and picked me up and took me home.
Surprise Mom and Dad! You tired of me yet?
Saturday:
So the 70 seat phantom flight was scheduled again for that afternoon.
So I packed up all my stuff, again.
I called Travis right before we left and surprise, surprise it was pushed back again.
My mom and I decided that this day would not be a waste!
We pulled out that awesome book she gave me,
And we decided to make macarons!
We were nervous about how they would turn out but they were amazing.
Some we made with plain buttercream frosting.
Some we made with chocolate buttercream.
Mmmmm I really wish I had one now.
Fast forward to Mother's day and I gave my mom this:
We ordered chinese food that night and watched chick flicks.
So that was a fun day.
Sunday:
70 seat flight scheduled, again.
Packed, again.
Went to Travis, again.
Waited, again.
Flight cancelled, again.
I was about to lose it.
Stephen said he was going to be home in a couple of days.
All I wanted to do was get home!
Now a military wife I knew, when she heard I was stuck in California, told me about a website, militarytogo.com, where you can get cheap flights.
I had checked it but the flights were still just as expensive (AKA over $500).
But now, I was so frustrated I decided to check again.
That's when I suddenly realized something.
When I had checked before, I had forgotten to click the "one way" option!
There were flights for $230!
I almost broke down into tears.
I immediately thanked God for this blessing and for the military wife who told me about it (thanks Christal!).
I bought a ticket for that Tuesday.
My parents came back and picked me up again.
And back to Napa I went.
Monday:
Hung out and relaxed knowing I was going home the next day.
Tuesday:
My dad took me to the airport.
I was never so happy to be at an airport in my life.
I even saw someone that had been at the Travis terminal all week too.
So back to Hawaii I flew and Stephen came home the next day.
The end.
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